The Iron Curtain
Steve Shelokhonov was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and was classically trained on the piano. As a teenager and young adult, Steve played in underground rock clubs in Russia before moving to the United States. He began writing music and attending the NAMM Shows where he was exposed to...
Bob Hardy was greatly influenced by the American rock and roll artists he heard on the radio as a kid growing up in 1950's Liverpool, during which time he was a pupil at the Liverpool Institute with George Harrison and Paul McCartney. A few years later, around 1961, he was blown away when a friend...
Bob Watters was 12 years old when he picked up his banjo and began traveling for evangelists in and around his home state of Texas. He performed for tent shows and gospel revivals for a few years before he, at the age of 15, started providing some of the sermons. Along the way he performed with...
Tony Ferguson has had an amazing career in music! He began playing guitar at a young age growing up in England, touring with bands such as Unit 4 + 2 and Christie before switching to the record industry as a producer, manager and as Artist & Repertoire (A&R) for over 20 years. While working...
Howie Schwartz has had a passion for music and sound since he as a kid, which landed him in the Eastman School of Music playing bassoon. After his time in school, Howie worked as a DJ at a local radio station. He was drafted and continued his DJ career working being the iron curtain in Berlin,...
Markos Kounalakis’ passion for music developed in the 1980’s when he worked at a broadcasting company in Sweden. The radio station had such powerful antennas that the government of the Soviet Union could not jam the signal. As a result, the music Markos played was able to be heard behind the Iron...
András Simonyi grew up listening to traditional Yiddish and Hungarian folk music, but his true love was rock and roll music. This became a lifeline for him growing up behind the iron curtain and helped him feel less isolated. Mr. Simonyi became an economist and later an ambassador for Hungry which...
Raphael Semmes (pronounced Raf-yul) has fond memories of his mother singing as he was growing up. The feeling of her music became an inspiration for him and when he was given a Silvertone guitar, and he soon discovered that he could express himself with music as well. Switching to bass, Raphael...